And the whole multitude of them arose, and
they led him unto Pilate, and they began
to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow
perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute
to Caesar, and saying that he himself is
Christ, or the Messiah, a king.
Now notice, their accusation against him was blasphemy.
You're saying you're the son of God.
When they brought him to Pilate to accuse
him before Pilate, they didn't make that charge
at all before Pilate.
Why?
Because they knew that Pilate would throw it
out.
You say, ah, it's just your own problem.
You're religious superstitions.
Don't come to the Roman court with that.
So when they came to the Roman court,
they came with a whole different set of
charges.
The charges before the Roman court was that
of perverting the nation, seditious.
He is a man who said you shouldn't
pay taxes to Caesar.
That's not true.
He said, give to Caesar that which is
Caesar's.
And then they also accused him of declaring
himself to be the king.
And Pilate asked him, saying, are you the
king of the Jews?
And he answered and said, you said it.
Thou say'st it, equivalent today of saying, hey,
you said it.
And then said Pilate to the chief priest
and to the people, I find no fault
in this man.
And they were the more fierce, saying, he
stirs up the people.
Teaching throughout all of Jewry, beginning from Galilee
to this place.
Now, Galilee was the place where all of
the rebellions against Rome started.
So by placing him in Galilee, they were
seeking to place him at the heart of
rebellion against Rome.
This man is stirring up people everywhere, up
there in Galilee, you know.
And it was one of those buzzwords by
which they intended to get Pilate excited.
But when Pilate heard Galilee, he asked whether
the man was a Galilean.
And as soon as he knew that he
was a Galilean, he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction.
He sent him to Herod, who himself also
was at Jerusalem at this time.
This is Herod Antipas.
And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding
glad, for he was desiring to see him
for a long time.
Because he had heard so many things about
him.
And he had hoped that he might see
some kind of a miracle done by him.
Then when he questioned him in many words,
but Jesus answered him nothing.
This is the Herod, of course, who had
beheaded the cousin of Jesus, John the Baptist.
And Jesus had nothing to say to him
at all.
And so then Herod, with his men of
war, set him at knot and mocked him,
and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and
sent him again to Pilate.
And the same day, Pilate and Herod were
made friends together, because there had been enmity
between them for quite some time.
And Pilate, when he had called together the
chief priests and the rulers of the people,
he said unto them, You have brought this
man unto me as one that is perverting
the people, and behold, I have examined him
before you, and I find no fault in
this man touching those things whereof you accuse
him.
No, nor did Herod.
For I sent you to him, and lo,
nothing worthy of death has been done by
him.
I therefore am going to chastise him and
release him.
For of necessity it was a custom that
he released unto them one prisoner at the
feast.
And they cried out all at once, saying,
Away with this man, and release unto us
Barabbas, who for a certain sedition made in
the city, and for murder was cast into
the prison.
Now Barabbas was guilty of these very charges
which they were making against Jesus.
False charges against Jesus, they were true against
Barabbas.
Pilate therefore willing to release Jesus spake again
to them, but they cried, saying, Crucify him,
crucify him.
And he said unto them the third time,
Why?
What evil has he done?
I have found no cause of death in
him.
I therefore will chastise him and let him
go.
And they were instant with loud voices requiring
that he might be crucified.
And the tragic scripture and the voices of
them and of the chief priest prevailed.
How sad when the voices of the mob
prevail.
And Pilate gave sentence that it should be
as they required.
And he released unto them him that for
sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom
they had desired, but he delivered Jesus to
their will.
And as they led him away, they laid
hold upon one Simon a Cyrenian coming out
of the country, and on him they laid
the cross that he might bear it after
Jesus.
Now the procession, typical Roman procession, was they
had four Roman soldiers, two going slightly ahead
and two slightly behind, and the prisoner in
the middle.
And then one soldier would lead the procession.
And the soldier leading the procession had a
sign with the accusation against the person to
be crucified.
In this case, the sign said, The King
of the Jews.
And when they came to the place of
crucifixion, this sign was then nailed to the
top of the cross so that the people
would all know the reason why this man
was being put to death by the Roman
government.
As they would go through the streets of
the city, they would usually take the longest
route.
And of course, there was always a lot
of noise and a lot of clamor, and
this was intended to draw the people out
to see what was happening.
And they would see this man walking in
the midst of the Roman soldiers pulling his
cross along, and they knew that he was
going to be crucified, and the accusation against
him was in front.
And it would strike terror in the hearts
of the people trying to rebel against Rome.
Jesus, weakened by the chastening, was probably physically
unable to bear the cross any further.
And so they compelled this man Simon, who
was a Cyrenian, to bear the cross.
What the Roman soldier did was just take
his sword and lay it flat on your
shoulder, and he could order you to carry
his bags for a mile.
And that was Roman authority.
I mean, you couldn't say no.
You couldn't say, well, I'm busy, or I've
got to get this quarter of a mile
home to my wife.
You know, she's baking cookies or something and
expecting me to come home.
Couldn't do that.
He laid that sword flat on your shoulder,
and he'd tell you to do something, man.
No arguments.
You had to do it.
And so they laid the sword flat on
Simon's shoulder and said, carry this man's cross.
And Simon began to carry the cross.
Now, according to Josephus, the Roman government, the
Jews would not allow a census to be
taken since the time of David, when the
judgment of God came against Israel because David
numbered the people.
And so, the Roman government wanted to know
approximately how many people there were, and so
they counted the number of sheep that were
killed for the Passover at the time of
Christ.
And according to Josephus, there were 26,572
sheep killed for this one Passover.
And there was, according to the law, a
minimum of 10 people to eat the one
lamb.
You had to have at least 10 people.
So, the number of people at that particular
Passover was over 2,700,000.
Of course, it was the longing desire of
every Jew to go to Jerusalem for the
Passover sometime in his life.
If you lived within 15 miles of Jerusalem,
a male, adult male, you were required to
be there.
Further away, it was always your dream, and
so when they would partake of the Passover,
they'd say, this year here, next year Jerusalem.
Even to the present day, it's a traditional
part of the Passover feast.
This year here, next year Jerusalem.
Simon had no doubt come from Tripoli, for
that is a Cyrenian who was from Tripoli,
for this Passover.
It could be that he was very upset
when that Roman sword was laid on his
shoulder and he was compelled to bear the
cross.
We do not know, but we are told
that this Simon was the father of Rufus
and Alexandria.
The fact that his sons are named, I
believe it's in Mark's Gospel, it means that
his sons were well known by the Christians.
So, there is a very good likelihood that
this Simon, as a result of his encounter
with Jesus and bearing the cross of Jesus,
was converted.
And his sons became well known in the
early church, Rufus and Alexandria.
As Paul is writing to the church in
Rome, he said, and greet Rufus, who is
as my brother, and his beloved mother, who
is as my own mother.
It could be the very Rufus, the son
of Simon, who was compelled to bear the
cross of Jesus.
And there followed him a great company of
people and of women, which also were bewailing
and lamenting him.
And Jesus, turning unto them, said, Daughters of
Jerusalem, don't weep for me, but weep for
yourselves and for your children.
For behold, the days are coming in which
they will say, Blessed are the barren.
Now, that, of course, to be barren was
a curse.
They'd always say, Cursed are the barren.
If a woman could not bear a child,
that was cause for divorce, legal cause for
divorce.
An acceptable cause for divorce.
If you could not bear a son for
your husband, that was an acceptable cause for
divorce in those days.
And they would say, Oh, she's cursed.
She can't bear children.
But Jesus said the day is going to
come when they're going to say, Blessed are
the barren.
And the womb, which has never borne, or
the breast, which have never nursed.
Then shall they begin to say to the
mountains, Fall on us into the hills, cover
us.
For if they do these things in a
green tree, that is while I am here,
the light of the world, what are they
going to do in the dry?
These days did come.
In less than 40 years, the Roman troops
came and ravaged the land of Palestine.
And the majority, the vast majority of the
Jews were killed.
In the final assault upon Jerusalem, according to
the account of Josephus, over a million Jews
were killed, and 96,000 were carried captive
back to Rome to be slaves for life.
There were also two other malefactors who were
led with him to be put to death.
And when they were come to the place
which is called Calvary, there they crucified him
and the malefactors, one on the right hand
and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do.
And they parted his raiment and cast lots.
This statement of Jesus, Father, forgive them, they
know not what they do, according to Luke's
gospel here, was made as they were preparing
them for the cross.
That is, they would lay the cross down
on the ground, which was in a shape
sort of a T, and they would stretch
out the prisoner's hands on the crossbars, and
they would drive these spikes through his hands.
Last year when I was in Jerusalem, I
was visiting in a house of Theo Seidenbaum,
who had excavated under his house and had
come back to the Roman period and had
found there this large spike, which looks like
a railroad spike.
And he said to me, these are the
spikes that it is believed the Romans used
in crucifixion.
I said, Theo, I've got to have one
of those spikes.
I don't care what it cost, I want
one.
I hope that he has one for me
when I go back.
I'm going to call and see.
He said he thought he could get me
one.
I want to show you what the Roman
spikes look like that they have uncovered there
in Jerusalem.
But they would drive these spikes through the
hands on the crossbars.
And in the case of Jesus, they drove
the spikes also through his feet as they
nailed him to the cross, and then they
would implant the cross in the ground.
Now, while they were nailing him, Jesus said,
Father, forgive them.
They know not what they do.
Here we find that Jesus, having been brought
to the place physically where he could no
longer go around touching the blind eyes, touching
the deaf ears, because his hands are now
held fast to that cross.
Though he cannot minister in an active way
walking around their villages anymore, still, there is
one avenue of ministry left, and he exercises
it, the ministry of prayer.
And he prays for them.
And the prayer of Jesus was answered on
the day of Pentecost, some 50 days later,
when they were again gathered in Jerusalem for
that celebration, when the Holy Spirit descended upon
the early church and the people gathered to
observe the phenomena that accompanied the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit.
Peter stood up and he said, You men
of Israel, hearken unto me, for these men
are not drunken as you suppose.
It's only 9 o'clock in the morning.
But this is that which was spoken of
by the prophet Joel when he said, In
the last days, saith the Lord, I am
going to pour out My Spirit upon all
flesh, and your sons and daughters are going
to prophesy, and your young men are going
to see visions, and your old men will
dream dreams.
And upon My servants and handmaidens will I
pour out My Spirit in that day, saith
the Lord.
And there shall be blood and fire and
vapor of smoke, and the moon shall be
turned to blood and the sun into darkness
before the great and notable day of the
Lord come.
And it shall come to pass that whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
And Peter said, Jesus of Nazareth, a man
who proved himself to be of God among
you by the marvelous works that He did,
whom you, according to the predeterminate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, with your wicked hands have
crucified and slain, but God raised Him from
the dead because it was not possible that
He could be held by death.
For David, by the Holy Spirit, said, Thou
will not leave my soul in hell, neither
will you allow the Holy One to see
corruption.
And Peter said, This was fulfilled for His
soul was not left in hell, neither did
the Holy One see corruption, but this same
Jesus hath God raised from the dead who
ascended on high and has now given this
which you see, the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit.
And they were convicted in their hearts.
And they said unto them, Men and brethren,
what shall we do since we've crucified the
Lord of glory?
And Peter said, I realize that in ignorance
you did it, but repent and be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of your sins and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Now, Father forgive them.
They know not what they do.
Peter said, You did it in ignorance.
And 2,000 souls were added to the
church.
The prayer of Jesus was answered.
Those who had ignorantly put Him on the
cross had found forgiveness and were now a
part of the body of Christ.
And the people stood beholding, and the rulers
also with Him derided Him, saying, He saved
others.
Let Him save Himself if He is the
Messiah, the Chosen of God.
And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to
Him and offering Him vinegar and saying, If
Thou be the King of the Jews, save
Thyself.
And a superscription also was written over Him
in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew,
This is the King of the Jews.
Now, this was the cry, the taunt, the
jeer of the people.
Save Yourself.
Do you know where the inspiration for that
cry came?
It came from the pit of hell.
For had Jesus saved Himself, He would not
be able to save you.
That cry was coming from the pit of
hell.
It was a taunt.
It was a jeer.
The high priest said, He saved others.
Himself He cannot save.
Let Him come down now if He is
the Son of God.
Let God save Him if God will have
anything to do with Him.
Because He said He's the Son of God.
And this was the mockery.
This was the cry.
The soldiers, Hey, if you're the King of
the Jews, save Yourself, man.
The people, they picked up this chant, this
cry, Save Yourself.
Let Him come down now from the cross
and we will believe Him, the priest said.
And one of the malefactors, which were hanged,
railed on Him, saying, If Thou be the
Christ, save Thyself and us.
So the same taunt that was coming from
the crowd, this thief picked up.
During the time of great psychic experiences, emotional
experiences, emotions are close to the surface and
it's very...
There's this mob psychology and there's this bit
of...
People begin to act like something other than
people when they get into crowds many times.
Even in football games.
You know, people put on chicken suits and
do all kinds of weird things.
And everybody accepts it.
Everybody laughs.
You watch some of these people, you know,
the weird get-ups.
People do weird things in a crowd.
There's sort of an anonymity in a crowd
that people like.
Nobody knows me, so I can act like
a freak and everybody laughs and has a
good time.
And there is that thing with the crowd
of wisecracking.
You ever been in the crowd when things
were going on and people began to make
their smart remarks and then it gets a
little competition of who can make the smartest
or cutest remark.
And of course, you measure them on the
laugh scale.
You know, you got an 8, well you
got a 5, well I got a 10,
you know.
And these things to play on the emotions
of the people, especially if it's a very
shocking thing.
I can imagine that to watch a man
dying on a cross would be an extremely
shocking thing to your psyche.
I would think that that would be extremely
difficult to just watch a man hanging there,
watching him as he is fighting for breath,
watching him as his body heaves, knowing the
pain and just seeing him as he is
gradually being worn down by the pain and
the suffering and know that he is dying.
That must be a tremendously shocking thing for
the psyche.
And so, I imagine that because you can't
really think on that too long without really
getting bugged by it, that, you know, there
would be those that would make these offhanded
remarks to divert the attention for a while
and to bring laughter because just the shock
of this thing settling in would be too
hard to take.
And because it was the cry of the
crowd and the common mockery and jeering against
Christ, the thief, probably just to get a
rise out of the crowd and maybe some
sympathy towards himself by joining with them, reviled
Jesus and said, Hey, why don't you save
yourself and us?
Oh, funny, funny.
And there probably went the ripple of laughter
through the crowd.
But the other thief turned to him and
he said, Don't you fear God?
Seeing that you're in the same condemnation?
Hey, you're in the same boat, man.
You're dying.
Don't you fear God?
It's the hour of death.
Don't you realize that we're going to be
facing the judgment of God soon?
Don't you fear God?
We indeed are here justly.
Justice is being served for we are receiving
the due reward of our deeds.
But this man has done nothing amiss.
Pilate said, I find no fault in him.
The thief testified he has done nothing amiss.
Judas said, I have betrayed innocent blood.
And he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me
when You come into Your kingdom.
How did he know that Jesus was a
king?
Because above the cross there was written the
word, the King of the Jews.
But this shows us that salvation faith has
to come from God.
For somehow His faith transcended even that of
the disciples.
And somehow by God He knew that though
this man was dying, he was yet to
come into His kingdom.
He had a faith greater than the disciples
because at this point the disciples had been
wiped out.
They had forsaken Him and they had fled.
They had given up hope.
We had trusted in Him for the salvation
of Israel, but He now is crucified.
It's all over.
But somehow God planted faith in the heart
of this man.
For by grace are you saved through faith
and that not of yourselves, it is a
gift of God and not of works, lest
any man should be saved.
He boasts.
God planted faith, saving faith in the heart
of this man.
And He somehow realized that even though He
was dying, there was a message, just a
short message.
This is the King of the Jews.
And He believed it.
It had to be the faith of God
planted in His heart.
And so He said, Lord, when You come
into Your kingdom, would You remember Me?
Not would You honor Me?
Not would You exalt Me?
Just remember Me, Lord.
The disciples were the ones that were saying,
Lord, when You come into the kingdom, exalt
Me.
Let me sit at Your right hand.
Let me sit at Your left hand.
Let me be prime minister.
Let me have Hawaii.
This man was just saying, Lord, would You
just remember me when You come into Your
kingdom?
Oh, what a simple prayer.
But it brought him salvation.
Oh, how close each of us are to
salvation.
It's just a simple prayer.
God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
Lord, remember me.
We read, Wherefore He is able to save
to the uttermost all who come unto God
by Him.
For Jesus said, And whosoever cometh unto Me,
I will in no wise cast out even
a dying thief in his last hour, who
says, Lord, remember me, can find salvation.
And Jesus said, Today you will be with
Me in Paradise.
This word, Paradise, is a word that was
used for the garden of the king where
he would invite his special guests to come
and walk with him.
Jesus said, Today you will be with Me
in Paradise.
It was about the sixth hour.
That is noon.
It's interesting that this all transpired before the
miracles of the day.
Before the earthquake.
Before the sun became dark.
God had planted the faith in the heart
of this thief to bring him salvation.
It was about the sixth hour and there
was darkness over all the earth until the
ninth hour, three o'clock in the afternoon,
and the sun was dark and the veil
of the temple was rent in the midst.
The sun was dark and that is nature
refused to look at this horrible sight.
Nature revolted against man.
There was a great earthquake.
The rocks were torn.
Nature revolting against man.
Had God not restrained it, I'm sure that
nature would have destroyed man at that point
for his heinous crime.
The veil of the temple was rent in
the midst.
We are told in another gospel from the
top to the bottom.
Oh, how significant.
The veil of the temple was the testimony
of how unapproachable God was to man.
No man dared to enter beyond that veil
except the high priest and that only one
day in the year and that only after
many sacrifices and washings and that only with
great reverence and fear having these bells tied
on the bottom of his coat and a
rope tied around his foot so that those
outside of the veil would listen for these
bells to be tinkling inside and if they
would stop, then they would pull the guy
out by his foot knowing that he went
into the presence of God with some blemish
and God smote him dead.
And so the ropes so they could pull
him out wouldn't even have to go in
to get him.
God was unapproachable by man.
Man's sin had alienated from God.
God's hand was not short.
His ear was not heavy, but sins had
separated people and the veil represented that separation
of the unrighteous man from God.
But at the death of Christ, the way
was made by which man might come to
God and God ripped that veil from the
top to the bottom saying, calm, calm, it's
open.
The way is now made through Jesus Christ
for you, for me, to be able to
come directly to God.
When Jesus had cried with a loud voice,
Luke doesn't tell us what He said, but
the other Gospels do.
He cried, It is finished.
He then said, Father, into Thy hands I
commend my spirit.
And having said thus, He dismissed His spirit.
Now when the centurion saw what was done,
he glorified God saying, Certainly this was a
righteous man.
And all of the people that came together
to that site, beholding the things which were
done, smote their breasts and they returned.
And all of his acquaintance and the women
that followed him from Galilee stood afar off
beholding these things.
And behold, there was a man named Joseph,
a counselor, and he was a good man
and a just.
And the same had not consented to the
counsel and the deed of them.
He was of Arimathea, a city of the
Jews, and who also himself was waiting for
the kingdom of God.
And this man went unto Pilate and he
begged for the body of Jesus.
And he took it down and wrapped it
in linen and laid it in a sepulcher
that was hewn in stone, wherein never a
man before was laid.
And that day was the preparation and the
Sabbath was drawing on.
And the women also which came with him
from Galilee followed after him, beheld the sepulcher
and how his body was laid.
And they returned and prepared the spices and
the ointments and they rested the Sabbath day
according to the commandment.
Now upon the first day of the week,
very early in the morning, they came to
the sepulcher bringing the spices which they had
prepared and certain others with them.
And they found the stone rolled away from
the sepulcher.
And they entered in and they found not
the body of the Lord Jesus.
And it came to pass as they were
very perplexed, behold, two men stood by them
in shining garments.
And as they were afraid and bowed down
their faces to the earth, they said unto
them, Why seek ye the living among the
dead?
He is not here, but is risen.
Remember how He spoke to you when He
was still in Galilee, saying that the Son
of Man must be delivered into the hands
of sinful men and be crucified and the
third day rise again?
And then they remembered His words.
And they returned from the sepulcher and told
all of these things unto the eleven and
to all the rest.
Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and
Mary the mother of James and the other
women that were with them which told these
things to the apostles.
And their words seemed to them as idle
tales and they believed not.
Oh, hysterical women.
Lord deliver us, you know.
They just didn't believe.
Just...
Well, of course we find Jesus talking to
them about that in just a moment.
Then arose Peter and he ran to the
sepulcher and stooping down, he beheld the linen
clothes laid by themselves and he departed wondering
in himself what it all meant.
What's happened?
And behold, two of them went that same
day to a village called Emmaus which was
from Jerusalem about three score furlongs or about
eight miles.
And as they talked together of all of
these things which had happened, it came to
pass that while they were communing together and
reasoning, Jesus Himself drew near and went with
them.
But their eyes were holden that they should
not know Him.
So God sort of put blinders on them.
They didn't recognize Him.
And He said unto them, What are you
guys talking about as you're walking along here?
How is it that you look so sad?
And one of them whose name was Cleopas
answering and said unto him, Are you a
stranger in Jerusalem?
You don't know the things which have come
to pass in these days?
And Jesus said unto them, What things?
And they said unto Him, Concerning Jesus of
Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed
and word before God and all the people,
and how the chief priests and our rulers
delivered Him to be condemned to death, and
they've crucified Him.
And we trusted...
It's past tense.
We had trusted that it had been He
which should have redeemed Israel.
And besides all this, this is the third
day since these things were done.
Hey, man, you must be a stranger.
You don't know the things that have happened
around here.
There was this fellow, Jesus of Nazareth.
Oh, great guy.
Mighty in power and God.
And He went around doing good.
Oh, He brought us hope.
We had hoped.
We had trusted that He was going to
be the one to bring deliverance.
But they crucified Him and this is the
third day.
And there were certain women also of our
company which made us astonished.
They went early to the sepulcher.
And when they did not find His body,
they came and said that they had had
vision of angels which said that He was
alive.
And certain of them which were with us
went to the sepulcher and found it was
even as the women had said, but they
did not see Him.
Then He said unto them, O fools, slow
of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken.
What does He do?
He takes them right back to the Word.
Right back to the prophecy.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things
and to enter into His glory?
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets,
He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning Himself.
And I'll never forgive Clopas for not writing
them down.
This is one of the messages of Jesus
that I would give anything to have.
How I would love to have heard Him
start with Moses and go through the Old
Testament and bring out all of the Scriptures
that related to Him.
Three hundred prophecies that He fulfilled by His
birth, life, death, resurrection.
Oh, what I wouldn't give to have this
sermon recorded.
Wouldn't it be great if they had cassettes
or something and we could listen to this
message?
Oh, my.
And they drew near to the village where
they were going.
And Jesus acted like He was just going
to keep going on further.
But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us,
for it's toward evening and the day is
almost over.
And so He went in to stay with
them.
And it came to pass as He sat
at meat with them, He took bread and
He blessed it.
And He broke it and He gave it
to them.
And their eyes were opened and they knew
Him.
And He vanished out of their sight.
It's interesting to me that it was when
He handed them the bread that they recognized.
Is it possible that they then saw the
nail prints and their eyes were opened?
And then He vanishes out of their sight.
Disappears.
And they said one to another, Did not
our heart burn within us while He talked
with us by the way and while He
opened to us the Scriptures?
Have you ever had a burning heart as
you read the Word of God?
Has it ever just kindled a fire within
your heart?
There are a lot of people who look
for excitement in their religious experiences.
They look for emotional highs.
They look to discover some kind of a
miracle or phenomena that they can get all
excited about.
An angel appeared or some other type of
phenomena.
These men said, Did not our hearts burn
when He talked to us and opened the
Scriptures to us?
I think that it is a sign of
spiritual health and maturity when a person begins
to get that burning heart as he searches
the Scriptures.
As the Holy Spirit begins to open the
Scriptures to him.
Oh, I'll tell you, I get so excited
just reading the Word of God.
I get so excited there are times when
I just really can hardly contain myself as
God's Spirit begins to open up the Scriptures
to me.
And just as I'm reading and the Spirit
of God just begins to open them up.
And I just get so excited.
I can't describe to you just how exciting
it is to be taught of the Spirit.
The truth of God's Word.
And suddenly just have the understanding given to
you.
And the Scriptures just opened up to you.
That's healthy.
There are some people that get excited when
people speak in tongues or when people utter
prophecies.
They're all, I get excited over the Word
of God.
Some people get excited with visions or dreams.
I get excited over the Word of God.
And so, they rose up in the same
hour.
They returned to Jerusalem.
I'll bet they got back to Jerusalem a
lot faster than they got to Emmaus.
And they found the eleven gathered together and
those that were with them.
And they said to them, Hey, the Lord
is risen indeed.
He appeared to Simon.
Telling these two fellows that came in.
The Lord is risen.
He appeared to Simon.
And they said, Hey, we had an experience.
And they told what things were done as
they were on the path and how He
was known to them when He broke the
bread.
And as they were talking about this, Jesus
Himself stood in the midst and He said
unto them, Shalom.
Typical Hebrew greeting.
But they were terrified and frightened.
They thought that they were seeing a ghost.
And He said unto them, Why are you
troubled?
Why do these questions arise in your minds
and in your hearts?
Behold My hands, My feet.
It is Me.
Handle Me and see.
For a spirit does not have flesh and
bones as you see Me have.
Now there are some people that find difficulty
here because Jesus is saying, Look, handle Me.
See if it isn't Me.
When earlier in the day He said to
Mary, Touch Me not.
I'm not yet ascended to My Father.
The words of Jesus to Mary, Touch Me
not.
The words, Touch Me not, are a poor
translation of the Greek.
In the Greek it reads, Don't cling to
Me.
Mary was no doubt touching Him already.
She no doubt had a death grip on
Him.
You got away from Me once, you'll never
get away from Me again.
Alright, you know.
I'm not going to let you go.
And He said, Don't cling to Me, Mary.
Go and tell My disciples that I'm risen.
So it wasn't, you know, Don't touch Me.
There's some mystic thing.
But it's just, Don't cling to Me, Mary.
Go tell My disciples I'm risen.
Here He's saying, Look, handle Me.
See if it isn't Me.
Ghosts don't have flesh and bones as you
see Me have.
And when He had thus spoken, He showed
them His hands and His feet.
And while they yet believed not for joy,
now it was just too much.
Oh, I can't believe it.
It's just too much.
And they were wondering.
He said unto them, Do you have any
meat?
And they gave Him a piece of broiled
fish and some of a honeycomb.
And He ate it before them.
And He said unto them, These are the
words which I spake unto you while I
was yet with you, that all of the
things must be fulfilled which were written in
the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and
in the Psalms.
The Psalms are filled with prophecies concerning Jesus
Christ.
There are entire Psalms that are known as
Messianic Psalms.
Psalms 22.
Graphic description of the crucifixion.
Psalm 110.
The priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Psalm 118.
And just over and over.
Many Psalms.
And so He said, Didn't I tell you
that these Scriptures must be fulfilled as Moses
and the Prophets and the Psalms?
Then opened He their understanding that they might
understand the Scriptures.
That's a glorious gift.
When God opens your understanding that you might
understand.
And that happens when you're born again.
If you try and read the Scriptures without
being born again, they're a mystery to you.
For the natural man does not understand the
things of the Spirit neither can he know
them.
They are spiritually discerned.
But he which is spiritual does understand all
things though he is not understood by any.
And He said unto them, Thus it is
written and thus it behooved the Messiah to
suffer and to rise from the dead the
third day.
And that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in His name among all nations
beginning at Jerusalem.
And you are the witnesses of these things.
So, here He is commissioning them that they
should go out and preach the repentance and
the remission of sins to all nations.
And behold, I send the promise of My
Father upon you.
This is the promise, no doubt, made to
Joel in the second chapter of the prophecy
of Joel when God said, And in the
last days, sayeth the Lord, I will pour
out My Spirit upon all flesh.
I send the promise of My Father upon
you.
But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem
until ye be endued with this power from
on high.
The promise of the Holy Spirit.
But they were to wait in Jerusalem until
the promise was fulfilled.
Now, this translation, tarry ye in Jerusalem, was
picked up by the Pentecostal churches and they
had traditional tarrying meetings where people gathered to
tarry to receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit.
That's unscriptural.
Jesus said, Tarry in the city of Jerusalem.
So to tarry in Santa Ana would not
be scriptural.
Jesus was not prescribing the method by which
the Holy Spirit should be poured out upon
all believers during church history.
There was to be that initial day in
which the Spirit of God would be poured
out upon the church as an abiding gift.
They were to wait for that day.
They were to wait in Jerusalem for that
day.
Once the day of Pentecost was fully come
and the Holy Spirit was poured out as
an abiding gift upon the church, it was
never necessary for them to tarry again to
receive the Holy Spirit.
All that was necessary was for them to
by faith receive the gift of God.
You don't have to tarry to receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit.
It's God's gift.
You receive it by just faith.
This gift is unto you and to your
children and to those that are far off,
even as many as the Lord our God
shall call.
And so He led them out as far
as Bethany.
And He lifted up His hands and He
blessed them.
And it came to pass, while He blessed
them, He was parted from them and carried
up into heaven.
Now, notice He went as far as Bethany.
Lifted up His hands and blessed them.
And as He was doing it, He was
lifted up and went on into heaven.
This was 40 days after His crucifixion.
He had been around among them for 40
days.
When you go to Jerusalem today on the
Mount of Olives, I think there are three
different sites where great churches have been built
over the spot where Jesus ascended.
The Russians have the Church of Ascension.
The Lutherans have the Church of Ascension.
And the Catholics have the Church of Ascension.
All on the top of the Mount of
Olives.
In one of them, they'll even show you
the footprints that He left in the rock
when He ascended.
Interesting, they're all on the top of the
Mount of Olives when the Scripture said He
went as far as Bethany.
I'm glad there's no Church of the Ascension
in Bethany, so you can just go to
Bethany and just look around and think, somewhere
in here, Jesus ascended.
But you don't have a spot.
Nor do you have a lot of baubles
and trinkets and souvenir salesmen.
Where He ascended is not so important as
the fact that He did ascend.
They're from Bethany.
And they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem
with great joy.
And were continually in the temple praising and
blessing God.
Amen.
They were continually in the temple, which means
that when the Holy Spirit descended upon the
church, they were probably in one of the
rooms of the temple.
Because it was ten days after this that
the Holy Spirit did descend.
And the fact that they were continuing daily
in the temple praising and blessing God means
that this phenomena probably took place right there
in the temple, in one of the rooms
of the temple where they had gathered to
worship and praise the Lord.
We'll get to that when we get to
Acts 2, but we won't get to that
until we get to John, which we will
start next week.
The first two chapters of the Gospel according
to John.
Father, give us burning hearts by unfolding to
us the truth of Your Word.
And may we feel that excitement, that rush,
that thrill of having Thy Spirit, Lord, just
opening up the truth and giving us understanding
and helping us to know You, Your love,
Your way, Your will.
Lord, as we go forth this week, guide
us.
May this be a week of spiritual growth.
May this be a week of deepening relationship.
May we draw closer to You, Lord.
And may You work in our hearts and
lives by Your Holy Spirit as You would
conform us into the image of Christ and
make us true and faithful witnesses of our
Lord.
Lord, bless us, strengthen us, help us, Father.
In the name of Jesus, our Lord, Amen.